AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 257 



Mr. Burr, of Washington city, related an Irish plan of growing- 

 potatoes by covering the vines as fast as they got about six inches 

 high. The potatoes kept forming, and the bed was fairly filled 

 with tubers. 



The Chairman — What sort of land was it? 



Mr. Eurr — The land was rather swampy, and the season suffi- 

 ciently wet. 



Solon Robinson — I have seen the same plan pursued in Indiana 

 by Irish settlers. They threw up a swampy piece in beds and 

 set the seed thick all over the surface, and covered it with earth 

 from the ditches, and cultivated in the same way by tlu-owing 

 up earth on the vines. The first season was wet and the crop 

 good. The next season there was a drouth, and the potato-bed 

 would have burnt like pine wood. 



Judge Meigs — I have planted potatoes in the same way, with 

 the same results. 



H. C. Vail — I think medium-sized potatoes best for seed. One 

 word more about carrots. I know from experience that carrots 

 mixed with oats are better than all oats, and I believe they help 

 the digestion of any grain, so that it is not as likely to be voided 

 whole. 



Dr. Waterbury did not coincide with those who gave so very 

 great importance to the carrot, compared with oats as a feed for 

 horses. He had tried them faithfully, and believed that they 

 were very good, gave the horse a glossy coat, &c., but were not 

 to be relied on as a substitute for oats. 



Orange Judd — My father, with whom I learned practical agri- 

 culture, had a good kind of potato which he continued to plant 

 on the farm for twenty-seven years; and there was no deteriora- 

 tion in its quality. He planted the large ones. Hilling potatoes and 

 corn, is very useful in all wet lands. The potato in the hill ob- 

 tains all the moisture which it requires by the capillary attrac- 

 tion of the soil in the hills. 



Mr. Vail — The method mentioned by Mr. Judd, was used by 

 my father, and has been adopted by the New Jersey Phalanx. 



AIR-TIGHT PRESERVE JARS. 



John D. Myers, of Brooklyn, submitted to the Club specimens 

 of new air-tight preserve jars. These jars are made either of 

 glass, porcelain, stone, earthenware or tin. The cover has a 

 groove wherein is inserted a ring of gutta percha, India rubber, 



[Am. Inst.] 17 



